Sunday, August 17, 2008

MLB Draft revisited...

I will spare everyone and not bring up the Beijing Games. Those athletes over there (especially the swimmers) are already getting too much pub - you know what half-man half-fish half-olympic-gold-medal-winning-machine accomplished Saturday night.

The other news that has caught my eye this weekend is the deadline to sign players from the MLB draft. Georgia got good news when Trevor Holder could not come to terms with the Marlins, but the Aaron Crow story was the biggest national story.

Crow was the Big 12 pitcher of the year for Missouri and the 9th overall pick by the Nationals. Crow initially was asking for close to 10 million guaranteed, but backed down to 4 million just before the deadline. Washington would not go over 3.3 million. Why in the world would you let the 9th pick sign with the Fort Worth Cats over 700K? Now, Crow will be back in the draft next year hoping to pull a Luke Hochevar.

The details of some of the contracts are pretty interesting. The guy who received the largest signing bonus was Buster Posey with 6.2 million, 50K more than Tim Beckham. Last minute signees Pedro Alvarez (#2) and Eric Hosmer (#3) both got 6 million. Miami's Yonder Alonso (#7) only gets 2 million, but check out some of his perks. That looks like a pretty sweet deal - 18K for books and board??

Those that watched the Fresno State love-fest on ESPN back in June know the name Tanner Scheppers. He was the ace of the FSU staff before hurting his arm early in the season. After being projected in the 1st round, Scheppers fell to the 2nd because of this injury. Well, Tanner thought he was worth way more than pitchers with hurt arms actually are (2 million). He went unsigned and I don't blame Pittsburgh one bit. They got the Alvarez deal done and that was priority #1.

The only other player in the top 70 that didn't sign besides Crow and Scheppers was Yankee 1st rounder Gerrit Cole (#28). Cole is honoring his commitment to UCLA and says the decision has nothing to do with money. He wasn't signing no matter what NY offered? Please.

The Red Sox took no chances with their 1st rounder Casey Kelly and dished out 3 million for the 30th pick. Kelly was the only player outside of the top 11 to get more than 2 million!